Bullets and Spells
by Chiara Alice Vargas
Summary: Alfred Jones just got himself into a bad fight with Ivan Braginski, luckily Arthur Kirkland was there to save him. Now fighting a battle against Ivan and Natalia  not surprisingly  , they learn to love while protecting each other. USUK, Modern!Hetalia
1. Chapter 1

**Bullets and Spells**

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><p><em>A Hetalia Fanfic concerning the pairing USUK (Alfred Jones x<em>

_Arthur Kirkland)._

_Modern!Hetalia, Human Names Used_

_Warning: Labelled as Rated M for a purpose. May contain_

_smut/lemons/yaoi/etc._

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><p><em>Other pairings that might potentially appear in this fic:<em>

_- GerIta_

_- SpaMano_

_- PruCan_

_- PolLiet_

_- Belarus/Russia_

_- NiChu_

_- angsty RoChu_

_- SwissLiech_

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><p><strong>Hetalia is owned by Hidekaz Himaruya. No copyright <strong>**infringement intended.**

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><p><strong>Chapter 1: Contrast<strong>

"Bloody git..." he grumbled.

"What now~?" he answered back exasperatedly. The other one sighed.

"Alfred, I believe I don't like to have the light squished out of me." the smaller man grunted. He said this as slowly and patiently as possible, given that this is the umpteenth time he had repeated this to Alfred.

"Oh, right, sorry." chuckling, the taller one released him.

"Why are you so fond of hugging me, anyway? Actually, I wouldn't even call it hugging. It's more of suffocating."

"Arthur, why would I be fond of suffocating you? I just like to cuddle you a lot, that's all." Alfred Jones, also known as The Hero, grinned. It just made the other one blush.

"Hmph. For all you care, I could be a stuffed toy to you." He grunted.

Running his hands over his uniform, he gently smoothed out the creases in his outfit. He wore a simple suit today. It was the year 2010, where a green suit with a thousand pockets wasn't the most fashionable thing anymore. The Brit never conformed to fashion, never gave in to trends. He thought of this as shallow. But he had to conform to the changing times; he didn't want to draw much attention. Finally, he concluded, the least he could do was to not looked overdressed, but look decently modern at the same time.

The American, wearing the same bomber jacket he had loved to wear for the past, oh - who knows - half a century or so, was still wearing a suit and tie underneath it all. Arthur refused to see Alfred wearing a shirt and a pair of jeans at all costs, when mainly, they see each other in business form. It was only on those do-nothing-days or those days where smart casual attire needn't be observed that Arthur had allowed Alfred to walk around in jeans and a shirt. But never in a million years would Arthur let him wear baggy shirts and low-waist pants the youth of today simply loved to wear.

Alfred chuckled. He's used to seeing his partner so fussed about his attire but not caring about his unruly punkish hair and thick eyebrows.

"What's so funny?" he asked suspiciously.

"You just looked cute, is all." he grinned.

"Please don't use that adjective on me ever again. I don't know how many times I have pointed this out to you, but I am not 'cute', as you imply. I am not freaking Shinatty, for crying out loud." he haughtily said.

"Jeez, stop talking as if this is the 1800's or something. Also, Shinatty is not cute, that's just plain creepy."

"Yao doesn't seem to think so."

"What's so cute about an old guy wearing a mask that was _obviously_ a rip-off from one of Kiku's creations?" he laughed. Alfred ruffled Arthur's blonde messy hair, as if it wasn't messed up already.

Arthur grew silent. He wasn't so sure either. He just blushed lightly. Although, this isn't the point. The point is, they were going to be late for the meeting and that they were standing in front of the doorway talking about nothing important in particular. How did this even start? Oh, right, Alfred cuddled him as Arthur reached out to turn the doorknob.

"I can't really believe we're going to see them again! Commie bastard, Frog face and that Shinatty freak-o. And even Mattie!" he laughed.

"Alfred, Mattie, ahem - Matthew - lives in the country above yours, in case you haven't noticed." (no pun intended on that one...)

"Also," Arthur continued, "it would be best if you don't label them with those explicably demeaning nicknames." he grunted.

"Well, I heard he's been spending a lot of time with Ludwig's brother. Gilbert, wasn't it? Anyway, you were the one who suggested Frog Face, Ivan really is a Commie, and Yao is still the same Shinatty freak." he huffed.

"I believe you and Ivan are on civil terms now. It is immature to call someone such an offensive term like 'Commie'." he said, flinching at the word 'Commie', slang for Communist. It was sort of true, years of bitter war and hatred had probably mellowed down to a little less of contempt disgust, but just enough that they can still look each other in the eye without getting the urge to gouge it out of its socket. Ivan and Alfred were never on the good side of each other, even though their Allied Forces days.

"Alright, alright. I'll behave myself today, just so Ivan won't have to shove his water pipe into me." he ruefully said.

"Thank you." he said curtly. He didn't want to be held accountable against Alfred's actions again, should they turn out to be brash and sudden today.

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><p>Walking to the train station, they hurriedly bought tickets to the station nearest the UN Headquarters. Their somewhat-reunionmeeting is being hosted in America, and Arthur happened to be there that time. They then took a short taxi ride to the said building.

"Ah, Alfred, Arthur. So nice of you to come. Bonjour." Francis' voice suavely greeted them by the door.

"Yo." Alfred simply said.

"Hello, Francis." Arthur greeted back, sending quick dark looks towards Alfred, and his unbecoming behavior.

Matthew was helping himself to some coffee and a stack of pancakes he had bought from the drive-thru of McDonalds. He scrutinized the syrup that came with it, and left it on the table, silently getting his own maple syrup which he had brought all the way from Canada. He sat there, silently eating his late breakfast, until he caught sight of Alfred.

"Al." Matthew called over.

"I heard something!" Alfred gasped to Arthur.

"Drop the act you git, it's Matthew."

Alfred laughed and apologized.

"Mattie! Long time no see! I see you've been getting along well with Gilbo." Alfred snickered. He loved to tease his brother, he adored the way Matthew got mad but didn't do much about it.

"Refrain from calling him Gilbo, you ass. It sounds awful." Matthew reproachfully said.

"Haha, yeah sure whatever."

The door swung open and in came Ivan and Yao.

"Privet, my comrades. You have been a little early, da?" Ivan flashed that smile towards people. It was fake and creepy at the same time.

"Ni hao ma~" Yao greeted, clutching Shinatty by his side.

Alfred just ignored Ivan, but greeted Yao.

"Hey, Yao." he said.

"Ni Hao!" the other one replied.

Everyone was talking small talk, sometimes in pairs or groups, sometimes all six of them as a group.

"Say, Ivan. How's that psycho of a sister working out for you?" Alfred's attempt at conversation, was sad to say, very poor and pretty vulgar, had he meant it or not.

"My... psycho sister... is quite fine, thank you." he sickeningly smiled. His face was unreadable, but inside his mind, he kept telling himself to ignore any attempts of provoking.

"I bet I would have killed myself now over that. It would be much better dead than to suffer Hell on Earth with Natalia, hm?" Alfred smirked. He had absolutely no idea why he was doing this. He probably just got his kicks from insulting Ivan.

"You would have. I would have not. There is a difference." his facial expression changed slightly, but reverted back.

"Has she been quite lax on security?" he dug deeper. For all he could know, he was digging his grave already, but who cares?

"A-Alfred, what the bloody hell do you think you're doing?" Arthur silently hissed in his ear. He had stopped his conversation with Matthew when he heard him.

Paying no mind, he continued, "I don't see your sister around anymore." he challenged.

"She has better things to do than to break doorknobs and harass me." he bitterly shot back.

"I bet you're feeling grateful right now. You've been pretty comfortable with Yao recently, you see. Wonder if she'd like that..." he whipped out his phone threatening him. Why? What good would he gain from this? If anything, this'd just bring disaster.

Ivan quickly used his long water pipe to flick that iPhone away.

"You would do no such thing, comrade..." he smiled, with a matching evilness only he could offer. He kol'd lightly thrice, a dark look spread across his face.

"Not cool, man. That was just brand new." he gritted his teeth.

Ivan, clearly wanting to end this, swiped the air with the water pipe, as Arthur suddenly chanted a load of gibberish. And the slash, which had been meant for Alfred, had sliced Arthur instead.

"Alfred, you bloody git! Look what you made him do! Damn..!" he grunted, keeping the blood from flowing out too much. He was wounded badly, it was not that deep but Arthur was losing a lot of blood.

"What...the? You!" turning to Arthur, he saw the cut. Turning to Ivan, his anger blazed. _Anything, just not his Arthur. Just not him. If it was him, prepare to go down._

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><p>Author's Notes:<p>

_Privet_ – The Russian way to say hello, but in an informal manner. I suppose this is what Ivan would use… since they are quite close.

_Da?_ – For you people out there, it's what Ivan usually uses to end his sentences. It means "yes?" in Russian.

I had fun writing this first chapter under time pressure! Haha! Under thirty minutes! I'm so awesome! (Not as awesome as Prussia though.)

I'm planning to have mpreg and smut in the later chapters (USUK, obviously~), so beware~

Sorry if the first chapter was a bit short though! Constructive criticism and rate and reviews will be highly appreciated! :3

_Edit:_

jlfbsdjf oidfp;a ;_; Just discovered that there's no World Trade Center in 2010, like, you know, rebuilt after the 9/11 incident... I feel so stupid and uninformed now. ;_; Had to change it to UN Headquarters, I mean that's still New York so, yeah, it works. XD

**~pasuterukyan**


	2. Chapter 2

**Bullets and Spells**

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><p><em>A Hetalia Fanfic concerning the pairing USUK (Alfred Jones x Arthur <em>_Kirkland)._

_Modern!Hetalia, Human Names Used_

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><p><strong>Warning: Labelled as Rated M for a purpose. May contain smutlemons/yaoi/etc.**

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><p><em>Pairings in this chapter: MAIN: USUK; OTHER: PruCan, Angsty RoChu<em>

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><p><strong>Hetalia is owned by Hidekaz Himaruya. No copyright infringement intended.<strong>

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><p><strong>Chapter 2: Shield<strong>

"Al!" Matthew screamed out. What he saw was completely different from what Alfred and Ivan saw. What they saw was that Arthur got wounded. Matthew saw otherwise.

"Wha-What? Arthur! Are you okay?" he swivelled around, facing Ivan. "I don't know what you did to him, but you're going to pay for this, Commie bastard!" it seemed like Alfred never grew out of that vulgar nickname for Ivan.

"Ivan... Didn't mean to do that... My fault..." Arthur weakly said. A slash on his chest. Not too deep, but it caused a lot of bleeding. How could a pipe slash? It must have some hidden sharp edge.

"You can't blame yourself! You got hurt! Besides, I really felt it cut me! How could that happen?" he incredulously said, gesturing to the wound. "I reacted instinctively... I saw him target you, and so I performed a protective spell... The attack that you should have received was transferred to me... The damage inflicted towards you all went to me, and you are left unharmed." he managed a weak smile.

"So, it wasn't Al who got hurt?" Matthew said tentatively.

_Idiot. Why did he have to do that? He picked the fight, it was his fight, why'd he have to go butt in? Well, that's what he gets for sticking his nose in!_

"Kolkol, so that's why I felt a strong force when I slashed Alfred. Like a force field, da?" Ivan creepily smiled.

Arthur was slowly slipping away from the world. Yao had rushed to his side, trying to help. Francis called the ambulance. Alfred held his hand. Matthew, as calmly as he could, tried to send Ivan home before anything else happened.

"Kolkol, Mattvey, why do you send me away so? Is it because I have hurt your brother's boyfriend, da? Or is it because I have attempted to harm your brother himself?" he spat out, words like venom. It sounded sad and kind, but the intention was deadly.

"Just, just go, Ivan." Matthew sternly said. Ivan had obliged, but not without a few unintelligible words from his lips.

When Ivan was finally gone and out of earshot, Matthew internally sighed, _That bastard's finally gone, thank God. Had I been more functional right_

_now, I would have sent the police on him._

By functional, he meant able to think straight. Right now, he seemed rather _dys_functional, considering what had happened with them today.

"Move it people, emergency coming through." a voice loudly spoke. Two men were carrying a stretcher. They carefully placed Arthur there. He was semi-conscious, and his words were slurred.

"Make 'ure yuh vis't me lat'r... Promise me, Alfr'd..." he had gone loopy from the general anesthesia he had been administered to and the growing weakness in him.

"I will, Artie. I will." he gripped the other's hand for the last time as he was whisked inside the ambulance.

"Ugh. That name..." Arthur slurred. Alfred just smiled as they set up the inside of the ambulance. Alfred would have to trail the ambulance to the hospital.

"Will you come with me, Mattie, Yao, Francis?" he asked Francis last, he feared that Francis might take advantage of the weak Arthur, everyone knows how much of a kink Francis is, but he didn't want to make it seem like he purposely left him out.

"Let me tell Gil I'll be home late first, eh." he said, as he whipped out a Blackberry phone.

"I'll have to go somewhere..." Yao apologetically said.

"Oui, Monsieur Jones, I would come with you to see dear Arthur." Francis woefully said.

_Gil I wil b home l8, got 2 go visit some1 in the hospital_, Matthew typed in and sent.

_Y? Who's in d hospital?_, came the reply of Gilbert.

_Arthur. Got in2 a little bit of misfortune wit Ivan._

_Commie bastard. Take care then, come bak soon, miss u already! Ich_

_Liebe Dich, Matt. 3_ the last reply went in.

"Well, I can go now." Matthew looked up.

"Good. Come on." hastily saying goodbye to Yao, they hopped in on Alfred's car.

"Heatherland Hospital." Francis informed in a thick French accent.

"Mnh." Alfred gave a small grunt and nodded.

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><p><strong>Yao's POV<strong>

"That asshole, aru!" Yao yelled as he remained behind. Everyone had sped off to the hospital except for him.

"He went too far!" he yelled some more, frustrated at the offender.

Yao stormed out of the conference room, not bothering to clean up. He found Ivan sitting at a bench, sipping vodka. A dark expression was etched on his features.

"Ah, Yao." his expression softened at the sight of his lover.

The Chinese man merely grunted, folded his arms and bore his looks into him.

"Is anything the matter?" Ivan asked in mocked innocence.

"Don't think everything's fine, aru!" he raised his voice.

"If you're mad about that Arthur incident, let me tell you plainly: It's none of your damned business." he darkly said, his voice dripping with malice and venom.

"It is. Arthur's my friend and so is Alfred. You went too far, aru. You could have practically killed him." Yao said silently.

"His interference is his responsibility, kolkolkol." he calmly replied.

"It doesn't change the fact that you aimed to kill!" his voice rose again.

"I merely wanted to teach Alfred a lesson. Had Arthur not interfered -"

"—things'd be different, aru? No! It wouldn't!" Yao rudely continued.

"Tch." Ivan reached his breaking point, but he tried to redeem himself.

"Yao… come on. Let's forget them. What's important is that we still have each other, da?" he forced a smile. He motioned Yao to sit with him so he could give him a cuddle to calm down.

"No. We don't have each other anymore. I… I can't believe you." he said with contempt and undisguised disgust. _What a despicable human being. Oh, wait… is he?_

He looked up ahead, walking past Ivan. Turning back, he said, "Ivan… we're through, aru. I can't stand being with someone like you – it scares me. I might have the same fate as him, and I don't want that. I'm done." He said bluntly. He faced the hallway in front of him, and he ran. He ran away from Ivan, who might see his tears.

"Wait, Yao!" Ivan called out, but Yao was already far, unable to hear his pleads of compromise.

/break/

Later that evening, Yao sat on the couch in his suite, his face red with anger and hurt, his eyes puffy from crying. It was unlike him to cry over things like that – even he didn't fully understand why. It made no sense why he was hurt. He was the one who hurt Ivan, not the other way around.

He ordered a box of fried rice, and sat, waiting. Flicking through channels, he stopped at a movie channel. They were airing the movie "Karate Kid", or so it says on the upper-right corner of the TV. Jackie Chan had been one of his favourite authors, even if he had been "Hollywood-ized", as he called it.

A knock on the door interrupted him; he was watching the scene where Jackie Chan made Jayden Smith train with the jacket.

"Coming, aru." his voice wavered unsteadily, thinking it was Ivan. He opened the door to see only the Chinese restaurant delivery guy.

He received his order and gave the young man $3 plus the tip.

He absentmindedly watched the movie while eating Chinese rice. It got to the part where Jackie Chan destroyed the car he had so painstakingly fixed. It reminded him of Ivan, how one too many times either one had destroyed their relationship and how one too many times had either tried to fix it. But now, there was no turning back. Nothing more left to fix. This relationship was too far beyond repair.

He saw luggage beside the bed. _Must be Ivan's, _he thought. Feeling a new surge of anger and humiliation, that he had forgotten to make him take it, Yao hauled the luggage out, so that when Ivan would come back for it, it would be there and he wouldn't need an excuse to see him.

Pacing towards the phone, he dialled an overseas number and talked on the other line.

"Kiku, can you come over?"

"Me… come over to America? I'm not sure…" the crackly voice on the other side said.

"Can you at least stay on the line to talk to me…?"

"Sure, that I can do, Yao-san."

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><p><strong>Normal POV<strong>

"That Commie asshole…" the blonde muttered. His eyes were bloodshot and his hair was dishevelled. He tried sleeping his anger off an hour ago while waiting for Arthur to be fixed up, to no avail.

"Al, calm down." Matthew soothed him.

"Why do you even care?" Alfred snapped at him.

"Hey! Don't talk to my Mattie like that!" Gilbert snapped back.

Alfred didn't even remember _why_ Gilbert was here.

"He attacked you too." Matthew said in a melancholic way.

Touched by his brother's sincere concern, Alfred "brohugged" Matthew awkwardly. Matthew patted him on the back to say it was alright. Gilbert just gave a half-jealous scoff.

"What? I'm his brother." he laughed, or at least, forced himself to.

The doctor came out of the room, having treated the wounds. There was a slight problem in the ER, that's why it took them so long. They were led inside the room Arthur was assigned to.

"Arthur!" Alfred exclaimed, rushing over towards his side. He started sobbing, holding his lover's hand.

"I'm not dead, you bloody git." Arthur grunted.

"Ironic." he chuckled.

"I know. Let me rest, will you?" he weakly smiled and closed his eyes. He was just burned out.

Alfred ruffled the other's hair, pressed his cheek against it. He smelled the honey-coloured hair, fresh and distinct. The smell Alfred had grown up with.

"We shouldn't be watching this…" Matthew said weakly, who was also in the room with Francis and Gilbert.

"Nonsense, mon cheri." Francis waved him off. Matthew gave a little shudder as he knew what _mon cheri_ meant. Gilbert also buried his face in Matthew's hair, in an affectionate way of imitating Alfred.

"I love you babe. Get well soon."

"Ugh. That endearment term again…"

"I thought you were going to rest?" Alfred laughed.

Alfred informed the others that Arthur was fine and that they could go home. Alfred stayed and watched over him, waiting for the moment his Arthur would get better. Waiting for the day he can get revenge on Ivan Braginski.

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><p><strong>AUTHOR'S NOTES: <strong>

Yatta~! Chapter 2's done~ It's longer than Chapter 1 (Chapter 1 is 1,900 words long, including comments and stuff) and Chapter 2's 1, 753 words long, so I guess it's longer… ne?

Just a little note, though. This fanfic focuses more on the characters' lives as an individual, not as a country and its history. Should I make any history related comments or stuff, I would keep it to a bare minimum (I suck at history on a whole and the only reason I actually got better was because of Hetalia, so if I apply it to here, it wouldn't be much…).

As I said, I plan to have mpreg. Why do I keep emphasizing this haha!

Chapter 2 draft was actually written on my notebook, I just edited stuff. My best friend got to read the draft (Yao's POV until the near end of Ch. 2).

Rate and Review ~

~pasuterukyan

P.S.

My best friend saw the 3rd chapter draft and it had the words "Babe" and "Artie baby" on it and she was like "sdkgn jdfsakdnfl, ugh Claire (my real name haha), what _is_ that?" and I was like, "Dude, that's the third chapter. -_-"

I swear… people find me creepy sometimes. XD


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